


Swaying

by nambnb



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-23 18:54:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9671636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nambnb/pseuds/nambnb
Summary: Hawke and Anders leave Kirkwall on a ship.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [scher](https://archiveofourown.org/users/scher/gifts).



The wood creaked as the ship slightly swayed on the ocean waves on its way away from Kirkwall.

Boarding the ship incognito had been more or less easy with Hawke’s name being known to more people rather than his actual face, so only a few who had seen him fight when Kirkwall burned down knew it was him. Anders wore a dark, half-singed and torn hooded cloak atop his too easily recognizable coat. His hair was open and looked tousled as his bangs hung before his tired-looking eyes. His face had also been partially blackened with sooth to make his facial features less recognizable. He gave off the perfect aura of a victim traumatized by the events having unfolded in the City of Chains when a mage had deemed the injustice to be enough and had blown up the Chantry, openly challenging the system that kept mages prisoner to the wilfulness of Templars. Hawke had kept Anders close by grabbing him by his shoulder from behind while they had walked the wooden footbridge in unison with the crowd to get aboard.

Bethany had decided to try to get out of Kirkwall on another path, since groups of mages would be too easy to spot if they dared to take a ship. Hawke had not been able to give her much to take along, aside from half his coin and his Mabari, whom he had instructed to take good care of his little sister instead of him. She had smirked at her big brother and reassured him that she was a grown-up already and her confidence had eased his mind a little – she seemed to have become much braver since they had to part ways the last time a few years ago when she had been sent to the Circle.

To be on the safer side, Hawke had decided to head for the ship’s luggage room, since there were barely any guards stationed there. Most personnel were busy with keeping the crowd under control, because fear had stretched patience with each other thin, and a lot of nobles who had boarded the ship were arrogant enough to demand to be treated better than people with less money even though they were all just refugees at the moment. Aside from the general tension, that kind of haughty demeanor might also trigger Justice into action once again and this was definitely not what Hawke wanted to risk right now.

What he could not stop Anders from doing of course was to care for people having been hurt during the conflict in Kirkwall and suffering injuries because of it. There were a few of them in the luggage room with them – probably because they didn’t pay to be aboard, but the situation had been confusing anyway, so Hawke guessed this was probably the case for most of the people on this ship. Anders stuck to not removing his hood as he got to work, and his tattered cloak and disheveled looks first made people shy away from his touch. But as soon as they saw the gentle color of his healing magic lighting up and felt their wounds closing and their suffering ease up, they were more than grateful for his help and refrained from crying out to alert any guards that an apostate was right there among them.

Anders’ features already spelled out exhaustion but he still let his eyes roam the room to see whether anybody else needed his help even after he had healed about a dozen. Hawke gently placed a hand over his eyes and used his other arm to drag him away, leading him to a corner surrounded by stacked crates where they would be hard to spot if anybody came looking for them.

He made him sit across from him and removed the hood from Anders’ head. Then he gently caressed his ear and cheek in a single motion, allowing his thumb to brush from Anders’ brow over his cheekbone to his lips as he had often done before. His lover closed his eyes at the gesture for a moment, then tried to wet his dry, slightly cracked lips. Of course there was no rejuvenation magic left for himself – typical. Hawke placed a soft kiss on Ander’s mouth once, twice, then dared to aim for a deeper kiss with the other opening his lips to let him in. It was a slow dance of tongues, more to recognize each other than to heat things up, and they parted not long after. Hawke gently bumped foreheads with his lover as he stroked his hair and gave him a soothing look. Anders answered with a soft half-smile, but it didn’t manage to break his overall melancholy and he looked down.

“I still can’t believe you’re here with me, love. That I’M here…”

“You’re not getting rid of me anytime soon.”, Hawke reassured him with a grin and placed a kiss on his forehead not minding the sooth on Anders’s skin leaving him with a weird taste in his mouth.

Anders brows stayed knitted even though he forced a smile. “You could still leave me as soon as the ship enters the port, I won’t hold it against you.”

“Don’t you want me to be by your side any longer?”, Hawke asked him in all seriousness.

For a while now, ever since he had helped Anders to find the ingredients for blowing up the Chantry – unbeknownst to himself then – he wasn’t sure whether his feelings could still reach his lover. But he had hoped that with Anders’ plan having been carried out now and him already having told him that he will neither kill nor forsake him, that they could go back to be close to each other again. He wondered whether Anders had given up on their relationship despite everything, though.

“That’s not it.” Anders bit his lips and took a moment to gather his thoughts, but was still unable to make direct eye-contact with Hawke. “Being together with you, it’s like a dream come true for me. I just cannot stop the voice inside my head telling me that I don’t deserve you, that I’ll make you unhappy... That you could die because we are together.”

Hawke cupped Anders face with both hands and locked their gazes.

“Let me worry whether I will take these risks or not myself. It’s my decision, and I decided that I’ll be with you. Can you accept that?”

Anders’ eyes widened and he had trouble withstanding Hawke’s look of confidence that almost overwhelmed him and made tears well up in his eyes. He gave a soft, happy laugh as he put his hands on top of Hawke’s.

“You’re right. I’m sorry, love.”

“I love you, too. Never forget that.”

They shared another kiss; it was warmer this time, lighter, and given more naturally. Soft and almost hesitant touches turned into more passionate ones. They soon became immersed into each other and for a moment could finally forget the world around them crumbling, reducing it to the space existing just around them, and there all was good and warm and understood.


End file.
